Get the lowdown on the epic, post-apocalyptic, Ice Age train movie Snow Piercer. Christopher Nolan reveals why Zack Snyder's job on Man of Steel is so much tougher than his own job on the Dark Knight trilogy. Plus a bunch of new Robocop set photos show off the reboot's crazy vehicles!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from Man of Steel.

Justice League

Just in time to ring in the New Year, who's up for another round of insane Justice League rumors? These reports, supposedly from an inside source, form part of a larger constellation of Warner Bros. superhero movies, which involve Man of Steel serving as the beachhead for a new shared superhero universe, Darkseid showing up as the main villain, and a new, freshly rebooted Batman movie in 2016 — oh, and also maybe a standalone Aquaman movie, because why not?

Anyway, these latest rumors claim to flesh out the roles of the various group members, with a strong implication that Superman and Green Lantern will be the same versions of the characters as previously seen in their standalone movies... although, just to make this extra-complicated, that maybe doesn't necessarily mean we would see Henry Cavill and Ryan Reynolds take on these roles. Anyway, Zack Snyder is supposedly consulting on the portrayal of Superman — which flatly contradicts Snyder's statements that he's uninvolved in Justice League, but let's push on — and Green Lantern would be the same character, except "freshly written with a more serious tone."

The other characters include Batman (of course), the master strategist who doesn't want to hang out with all these superpowered characters, possibly because of deep-seated concerns that they are all too powerful. Wonder Woman will have been living in our world for only a few months when Justice League begins, Flash is beloved by the public but can be serious when the situation demands it, Aquaman is currently the King of Atlantis, and the Martian Manhunter has, in a bit of a break from the usual comics depictions, been living on Earth in secret for more than a century and has vital knowledge about Darkseid.

Speaking of which, Darkseid's Elite — a wonderfully bizarre bunch that potentially includes the likes of Desaad, Granny Goodness, Glorious Godfrey, Kalibak, Steppenwolf, and of course Virman Vundabar — will serve as the early antagonists in the film before the real threat shows up. Lois Lane and Alfred Pennyworth are also supposedly down for cameos, which means quick appearances by Amy Adams and Michael Caine — who has already said he would reprise the role if asked, no matter what Christopher Nolan has to say about it — aren't out of the question. Also, the military plays a big role, and this could eventually incorporate specific characters introduced in Man of Steel or even Green Lantern — which in the latter case pretty much just means Angela Bassett as Amanda Waller.

All things considered, there's still no reason to think that these rumors are any more true than any other possible Justice League scenario you or I could come up with. So, as long as you take this a big old heaping of grains of salt, feel free to check out the link for more. [Cosmic Book News]

Man of Steel

Producer Christopher Nolan, who also along with screenwriter David Goyer came up with the movie's story, offers some high praise for director Zack Snyder's work on the latest Superman movie:

"Zack was the perfect man to take this on. He is unbelievably skilled at creating a coherent, cohesive world — whether it's a very stylized world, like 300, or something that's more challenging, more varied, like he did with Watchmen. In my honest appraisal, taking on Superman and creating that world is far more difficult than creating the world of the Dark Knight. He has a lot of finishing to do on the movie — it has a very long post-production schedule because, unlike Batman, Superman flies. I actually feel guilty talking about it because I'm sitting here having nothing to do to it. I try to be as supportive as I can, and I'm just amazed by what he is doing. It's not something I would know how to do."

Guardians of the Galaxy

Writer-director James Gunn, whose previous oeuvre includes The Specials, Slither, Super — basically, if it's weird, violent, and starts with an "S", he probably made it — reveals he's doing some serious research for his superhero space opera movie with the talking raccoon:

Yesterday I spent a few hours with one of NASA's representatives from Jet Propulsion Laboratories, part of a group of scientists who consult [with] the movie industry (for free) to help bring a greater understanding of science to films. It was an utterly fascinating few hours with one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable guys I've ever met... [W]e made our way through a ton of information on the possibilities of space travel, alien life, etc...

Star Wars: Episode VII

As is frequently worth remembering, we only know about two people who are definitely working on the new Star Wars film: screenwriter Michael Arndt and new LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy. In the final chapter of a five-part set of retrospective YouTube videos, Kennedy discusses the transition as George Lucas leaves and she slowly but surely takes over:

It's funny — I find it's been interesting between George and I because we've been talking about this for several weeks now as I've started to get to meet people and get to know how the company and whatnot. And usually at the end of my phone calls with him, I end up saying, "So how are you feeling about this?" Because he's going through a transition out of the company, I'm going through a transition out of just producing movies into running this company and so all of my emotions are caught up in new beginnings as he's seguing out. So it is a thing that I think the two of us constantly kind of check in with one another to see, "OK, where's the balance? Is the balance happening here?" You know, I have a tremendous amount to learn from George, there's things that I want to preserve in the spirit of this company and as it moves into Disney, I think it's vitally important to anything we create to hold onto the spirit of what started all this. So I'd say that's what's really important to me.

Here's the full video, and you can check out the four previous entries here.

Snow Piercer

Here's the first poster for The Host director Joon-ho Bong's upcoming adaptation of the French graphic novel, which follows the last remnants of humanity as they navigate a new ice age in a supercharged train. The poster mainly just plays up the movie's cast, but with a cast like that, why wouldn't you?

There's also a couple new interviews with members of the cast. Here's Trainspotting star Ewen Bremner to offer a succinct explanation as to why we should get excited about the film:

One I've just been doing recently is, a really exciting [one], called Snowpiercer, directed by Joon-ho Bong, Korean director who directed Mother and also The Host. That's a really exciting film with Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell, and a really great cast. And a really exciting futuristic film, set on a train in an ice age, the last people alive on Earth, and it's about an attempted social revolution on this train and it's really... I've never seen anything like it, I'm really looking forward to it.

And the great John Hurt, who of course has been in everything from Alien to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, explains how his character fits into all this, because you just couldn't make a post-apocalyptic frozen train movie and not put John Hurt in there somewhere. Incidentally, if you've ever wanted to hear how a 72-year-old British acting legend wraps his mind around the out there, graphic novel-based premise of a movie like Snowpiercer, this is the quote for you:

"In Snowpiercer I play kind of a... because there is kind of a microcosm of humanity all on a train, which is going all around the globe. You know, in a small ice age. Um, it all sounds a bit preposterous, but the fact is that it's based on a graphic novel, which is a French graphic novel from round about the 80's. So, it is... kind of not real in that sense. It creates it's own reality, you'll see what I mean. And I'm playing an erstwhile leader, of revolutions, that is held in great regard by the young man who is leading the revolution at the moment. Because all the riffraff is at the back of the train and all the good ones live in the front of the train. So the revolution seizes through the train. And he (Joon-ho Bong) is a remarkable director. So, that is what I do there, but it turns out he is not as admirable as he might have been considered."

Here are the original video interviews. Bremner starts discussing Snowpiercer around the two-minute mark, and it's well worth checking out for his obvious enthusiasm for the project. [Comic Book Movie]

Robocop

Here's a bunch of set photos from the filming of Elite Squad director Jose Padilha's reboot, in which The Killing star Joel Kinnaman takes on the role of Alex Murphy, otherwise known as, well, Robocop. Anyway, these photos primarily give us some more senses of the futuristic law enforcement vehicles that will be featured in the film. [Comic Book Movie]

S.H.I.E.L.D.

Here's an interview with Stargate Universe's Ming-Na, who stars as Agent Melinda May on ABC's upcoming S.H.I.E.L.D. show. [Comic Book Movie]

Once Upon a Time

Showrunner Adam Horowitz has tweeted one last episode title, this one for episode sixteen. [SpoilerTV]